Strength in depth

Chris Wilder believes United are a stronger unit as the Sky Bet Championship season heads towards a climax.

The Blades have 13 league games remaining, beginning with Saturday's televised visit to West Bromwich Albion.

In the build up to the game, the Blades boss has been speaking to the media and commented: "In terms of strength, I believe we are the strongest we have ever been and that's what we are trying to do, keep building this football club.

"From the first window I was here to now, you have to keep moving forward and raising the bar, you cannot afford to stand still. That is across the club, the technical side, the tactical side and the physical side.

"We are playing really well and not scraping around for results. We have got to continue to do that. We've improved the group, the level has gone up, the competition for places has gone up and we've learned from the experience of last year - those are big factors in our strength.

"We did well last year but were not consistent with performances, we didn't have the ability to change it around and didn't have the competition for places. Now you look at our squad and we have 22 or 23 who can keep the same level of performance which gives you the opportunity to win games."